Corinne Jewelers Sells $170,000 Pink Diamond

Corinne Jewelers, a family-owned jewelry store in Toms River, N.J., has sold a $170,000 pink diamond to a longtime customer.

The sale was actually years in the making, owner Ryan Blumenthal tells JCK.

“Years ago in a casual conversation, this longtime customer mentioned her love of fancy colored diamonds,” he says. “We spoke briefly about how they were priced, and at the time they were out of her reach.”

But Blumenthal remembered the conversation, and this fall his good memory paid off. “We’ve developed a nice relationship with a wholesaler who is known for these diamonds, and we had a beautiful selection of fancy pink diamonds in the store for another client. We were like kids in a candy store. So I called up our original client and told her what we had, and she said, ‘I’m ready.’ ”

It took about two months from that phone call to the sale, which took place on Nov. 4. “It takes a couple of appointments to get it right,” he says. The stone, a 1.64 ct. radiant diamond with a natural pink color, was purchased loose. Allyson Berlen, Corinne’s sales manager and in-house designer, is designing a setting for the customer.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in colored diamonds, and we have always had a handful of lines that play with colored diamonds. Simon G. is one of our most popular designers in the store. But this is the first time we’ve done a sale that’s been of substantial size.”

“I haven’t had these things in front of me since I was at GIA,” Blumenthal says, speaking of the large, loose stones. “It was not one of those things that a store like mine, which isn’t really a couture store, gets to do.”

The sale comes at the close of the store’s 50th anniversary year. “We just did a huge renovation in the store, and we did our grand opening. It’s been an amazing time for this to happen, we are just in this constant state of celebration,” he says.